For : DISCUSSION SESSION 1:The Practice of Translation in Turkey by Ezgi Hazal KÖK
Being the most courageous, my friend Ezgi Hazal Kok presented the first discussion titled 'The Practice of Translation in Turkey'. She began to find some possible answers on some basic questions such as : Who is a translator?Are translators in Turkey well-qualifed? Why or Why not? andIs being a translator a good job to save money?I think that they were good questions for facilitating discussion. She talked about the qualification that a candidate of translator must have. These qualifications are knowing foreign language as his native language, the importance of culture and art, love of books, being altruistic, an expert on any areas, meek and calm, not being the one who seeks his right andliving in a city in the South. I agree with her suggested attributions because each of them is important. Then she briefly talked about the invitation to the book translators. I like the idea that she shared with us. It was about anorganization “Kitap Çevirmenleri Girişimi”. The aims of that organization drew my attention. I realized that it is really publishers who exploit translators and the concept of being organized towards the exploiting power over them is vey effective concept. In this discussion, I was shocked when I learned how much a translator earns for each book. I learned that most of the translators are doing as a hobby, a second job and pocket money. Towards to end of her presentation she approached to the conclusion with asking some useful questions: What does “being a good translator” mean?Where does a translator work? and What about insurance? I think best translator is the person who is faitful towards to text, culture and deep meaning of that language. Thanks to this discussion I learned in a different way. I realized that I rarely look the translator, I look the writer and do not care about the translator’s name. After this discussion, I tried to pay attention on who made translation and on what purposes he did his work. I liked the video that showing how to make a translation and how a translator works. It was very useful and beneficial for seeing the process of translation and the practical techniques in translation. The other video was about the translators. The video title ‘ Be part of our team’ was really encouraging. While watching this video we got chance to see what can be done and it was a good opportunity to us who interested in being a translator.
by SeLmA GENC
Selma, I do agree with you. I wrote one of my reflection reports on Hazal's discussion session too. What I also learned from your comments is that as future teachers of English language, we both think alike towards the very basic issues related to the translation and translators. I think as teachers we should do our best in order to emphasize the importance of these people and their contibutions to the any field of science, art and anything to our students. Therefore, we could raise students who are more sensible towards the translators and their works. By ERAY AKTAŞ
I agree with you Eray, I also add something on your comment about this article. We are Turkish people do not care about who the translator is when we read a translated book. What learned from this article is that we should care about the translator. When we read the book, firstly we need to look at this. if we care about the translators and if we care about the translated books, there won't be so many problems in this sector. As all we know, money is a huge problem in this sector. When the translator are known I am sure that their life condition should be better. Publishers will start to care about the translators rights I think.
By Meryem Luleci
DISCUSSION SESSION 3: What is Translation by Meltem Camlibel
In class discussion three, my friend Meltem Camlibel presented the articles titled ‘ What is Translation?’ and ‘Translation Strategies’. At the begining of the repsentation she started with understanding the meaning of translation. We tried to find and attribute different meanings. I like the metaphor ‘bridge’ for the translation because it really constitues a bridge between two languages and two cultures. After wards, we discussed about whether the translation a process or a product. As I said on my wikispacesconsidering the function of translation it is both because I think that to convey information with the help of knowledge that we know about that language determines how we are good at our work or product. The background, social and cultural competence, linguistic knowledge, structures, language skills are need to for adequate and productive translation. In other words, it needs some ability to give adequate and quality production. In addition, when I think about process translation takes time to do a good job. The translation may need several drafts to be valuable and elaborate work, so the process may take time. In this discussion Iearned that ‘The Concise Oxford English Dictionary’relates to translation as a process.It focuses on the role of the translator in taking the original or source text and turning it into a text in another language. It also relates to the product. It centers on the concrete translation product produced by the translator. Then, she briefly mentioned aboutRoman Jakobson’s Typology. In fact, with this discussion I learned the differences between intralingual, Interlingual and intersemiotic translation. I became happy to learn the area of translation because they were very crucial issues.I found the part which was giving some important translation studiesincluding the equivalence between items in source language and target languageandthe notion of translatability.Before this discussion I did not know that there are general laws of translation which are the law of growing standardization and the law of interference. She told about some useful strategies that some of them ‘Literal and Free’ In fact I did not know thatfree translationfocuses on the content of the target text rather than the form. The new word I learned from after this discussion is ‘translationese’ which is related to translation universals due to common translation phenomena such as interference, explicitation and domestication.I liked her graphics and pictures especially the ‘chicken translation’ samples at the end.
Selma, I agree with you that as Meltem presented, translation is like a bridge making connection between two different languages. Also, as you mention above, to me as well, translation is both a process and a product since without processing there is no product. Of course, there are some necessary areas, as you mentioned, addressing qualified translation which are social and cultural competences, linguistic knowledge, appropriate structures, different language skills. Otherwise, a translator cannot give the same taste to his readers as an author of original work can do for his own. Moreover, I agree that a translator need to have several drafts before producing his work, as you stated. I think the reason is that the things that you recognize that day can be different another day. I am really happy to know the difference between literal and free translation, which helps me to understand in which sense I can translate the given text.
For : DISCUSSION SESSION 1:The Practice of Translation in Turkey by Ezgi Hazal KÖK
Being the most courageous, my friend Ezgi Hazal Kok presented the first discussion titled 'The Practice of Translation in Turkey'. She began to find some possible answers on some basic questions such as : Who is a translator? Are translators in Turkey well-qualifed? Why or Why not? and Is being a translator a good job to save money?I think that they were good questions for facilitating discussion. She talked about the qualification that a candidate of translator must have. These qualifications are knowing foreign language as his native language, the importance of culture and art, love of books, being altruistic, an expert on any areas, meek and calm, not being the one who seeks his right and living in a city in the South. I agree with her suggested attributions because each of them is important. Then she briefly talked about the invitation to the book translators. I like the idea that she shared with us. It was about an organization “Kitap Çevirmenleri Girişimi”. The aims of that organization drew my attention. I realized that it is really publishers who exploit translators and the concept of being organized towards the exploiting power over them is vey effective concept. In this discussion, I was shocked when I learned how much a translator earns for each book. I learned that most of the translators are doing as a hobby, a second job and pocket money. Towards to end of her presentation she approached to the conclusion with asking some useful questions: What does “being a good translator” mean?Where does a translator work? and What about insurance? I think best translator is the person who is faitful towards to text, culture and deep meaning of that language. Thanks to this discussion I learned in a different way. I realized that I rarely look the translator, I look the writer and do not care about the translator’s name. After this discussion, I tried to pay attention on who made translation and on what purposes he did his work. I liked the video that showing how to make a translation and how a translator works. It was very useful and beneficial for seeing the process of translation and the practical techniques in translation. The other video was about the translators. The video title ‘ Be part of our team’ was really encouraging. While watching this video we got chance to see what can be done and it was a good opportunity to us who interested in being a translator.
by SeLmA GENC
Selma, I do agree with you. I wrote one of my reflection reports on Hazal's discussion session too. What I also learned from your comments is that as future teachers of English language, we both think alike towards the very basic issues related to the translation and translators. I think as teachers we should do our best in order to emphasize the importance of these people and their contibutions to the any field of science, art and anything to our students. Therefore, we could raise students who are more sensible towards the translators and their works.
By ERAY AKTAŞ
I agree with you Eray, I also add something on your comment about this article. We are Turkish people do not care about who the translator is when we read a translated book. What learned from this article is that we should care about the translator. When we read the book, firstly we need to look at this. if we care about the translators and if we care about the translated books, there won't be so many problems in this sector. As all we know, money is a huge problem in this sector. When the translator are known I am sure that their life condition should be better. Publishers will start to care about the translators rights I think.
By Meryem Luleci
DISCUSSION SESSION 3: What is Translation by Meltem Camlibel
In class discussion three, my friend Meltem Camlibel presented the articles titled ‘ What is Translation?’ and ‘Translation Strategies’. At the begining of the repsentation she started with understanding the meaning of translation. We tried to find and attribute different meanings. I like the metaphor ‘bridge’ for the translation because it really constitues a bridge between two languages and two cultures. After wards, we discussed about whether the translation a process or a product. As I said on my wikispaces considering the function of translation it is both because I think that to convey information with the help of knowledge that we know about that language determines how we are good at our work or product. The background, social and cultural competence, linguistic knowledge, structures, language skills are need to for adequate and productive translation. In other words, it needs some ability to give adequate and quality production. In addition, when I think about process translation takes time to do a good job. The translation may need several drafts to be valuable and elaborate work, so the process may take time. In this discussion Iearned that ‘The Concise Oxford English Dictionary’relates to translation as a process.It focuses on the role of the translator in taking the original or source text and turning it into a text in another language. It also relates to the product. It centers on the concrete translation product produced by the translator. Then, she briefly mentioned about Roman Jakobson’s Typology. In fact, with this discussion I learned the differences between intralingual, Interlingual and intersemiotic translation. I became happy to learn the area of translation because they were very crucial issues. I found the part which was giving some important translation studies including the equivalence between items in source language and target language and the notion of translatability. Before this discussion I did not know that there are general laws of translation which are the law of growing standardization and the law of interference. She told about some useful strategies that some of them ‘Literal and Free’ In fact I did not know thatfree translation focuses on the content of the target text rather than the form. The new word I learned from after this discussion is ‘translationese’ which is related to translation universals due to common translation phenomena such as interference, explicitation and domestication.I liked her graphics and pictures especially the ‘chicken translation’ samples at the end.
Selma, I agree with you that as Meltem presented, translation is like a bridge making connection between two different languages. Also, as you mention above, to me as well, translation is both a process and a product since without processing there is no product. Of course, there are some necessary areas, as you mentioned, addressing qualified translation which are social and cultural competences, linguistic knowledge, appropriate structures, different language skills. Otherwise, a translator cannot give the same taste to his readers as an author of original work can do for his own. Moreover, I agree that a translator need to have several drafts before producing his work, as you stated. I think the reason is that the things that you recognize that day can be different another day. I am really happy to know the difference between literal and free translation, which helps me to understand in which sense I can translate the given text.
BY EZGİ HAZAL KOK